Refugee Boy Makes Magic Out Of Plastic And String

By:

Jason Beaubien

There's no Xbox or PlayStation for most of the kids in the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh. But there are kites.

In the late afternoon, a steady wind over the hills of the Hakimpara refugee camp. Young boys race to a ridge at the top of the settlement to fly homemade kites. Some of the "kites" are little more than a plastic bag flapping on a string. But some are more sophisticated with long tails and frilly tassels. "This is a new kite and I'm very happy with it," says 7-year-old Mohammed Arfat as he reels out string to a silvery kite 30 or 40 feet above him.

Arfat adds that any day he's not able to fly a kite, he feels upset.

I ask Arfat where he got his fancy new kite. He tells me that there's "this guy" who makes them and gives them away.

The "guy" turns out to be a 10-year-old named Fayes Khamal.

"It's easy to make kites but I need to find the materials," says Khamal. "And it takes a bit of time."

Khamal uses bits of castoff bamboo and opaque plastic sheeting to fashion his kites — leftovers from the shelters people build and bits of trash he finds. In the simple shelter Khamal shares with his parents, he splits bamboo into thin strips with a machete and uses the bamboo as a frame for the kite. Then he stretches the plastic sheeting over it, tying it with string to the bamboo. After he's made the diamond-shaped body of the kite, he cuts a plastic grocery bag into strips and teases the ends into frilly tassels. Khamal attaches these to the kite to make the tail and what he calls "arms" — strips of plastic that dangle from each side of the kite and flap wildly when it's flying in the air

"If it didn't have arms and a tail the kite won't fly well," he says. "It would spin around in the sky. It needs these extra pieces."

He says once he has the materials he needs, it only takes him about 20 to 30 minutes to build a kite. Khamal makes four or five a week and gives them away to younger kids. His mother, Yemma Kulsom, sews clothes to earn extra cash. Khamal often borrows her thread and needles for his kite projects.

Kulsom says her son taught himself how to make kites back in Myanmar about three years ago. She says they've gotten more and more sophisticated as he's gotten older. They were forced to flee, she says, after an attack by the military on Rohingya rebels.

"When we heard that soldiers were coming toward our village, everyone hid in the forest," she says. "When we emerged the soldiers had burned down our houses. That's when we decided to come here to Bangladesh."

Kulsom says her dream for her son is that he gets a good education. He attends a school that meets for two hours most afternoons.

In the mornings, he goes with his father to the edge of the camp to collect firewood. She says Khamal is a good student and she thinks maybe he could be a teacher when he grows up. Khamal says he'd prefer to be a shopkeeper.

For now, however, he's the "kite guy."

Once he finishes making his latest kite he takes it out for a test flight.

The camp is dry. Powdery beige dust covers just about everything. Khamal starts to run up a path that cuts between the shelters. His kite rises up behind him. It flits through the air like a fish fighting its way upstream. The opaque plastic shimmers in the sky. Its tail darts from side to side. Khamal beams up at his homemade kite. For a moment it's the brightest object in the camp.

Upcoming Events

Kansas Public Radio and Maceli’s are hosting their second Songwriters Showcase, featuring local musicians Colin Halliburton, Sky Smeed and Kelly Hunt.

Join us on Saturday, March 3, at Maceli's (1031 New Hampshire St). Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and the show starts at 7:30 p.m.

Sky Smeed is a well-known local Americana singer-songwriter who has often been compared to Neil Young and Gram Parsons. Colin Halliburton, who often performs under the musical moniker The Roseline, describes his music as "alt-country bummer music, with a hint of hope." Accompanied by her 1920s tenor banjo, Kelly Hunt’s songs meld traditions of folk, blues, classic country, and old-time music for a sound that is all her own.

Tickets are $10 at the door and advance tickets are available for $10.50 at macelis.com. The musicians are generously donating their time and talent to the concert, and proceeds will benefit KPR. Beverages will be available for purchase at the event.

The Berlin Philharmonic Piano Quartet, one of the few existing ensembles of that instrumentation, has existed as a Berlin Philharmonic chamber music ensemble since 1985. This highly praised group is a collaboration between three awardwinning permanent members of the Berliner Philharmonic: Concertmaster Andreas Buschatz, violist Matthew Hunter and cellist Knut Weber, along with the renowned concert pianist Markus Groh. This outstanding ensemble is committed to not only representing the standard repertoire of classical, romantic and modern pieces, but also finding undiscovered masterpieces of the literature that encompasses over 400 works.